Peace and conflict impact assessment (PCIA) is a tool that potentially can improve the quality of development work in conflict zones. PCIA’s conceptual strengths and weaknesses are much debated but few studies to date have examined its use in practice. For this article, PCIA was used to structure research on conflict and peace dynamics in post-war Mozambique. The findings address both local peace-building outcomes and the usefulness of PCIA. PCIA functioned well as a tool for situational analysis, richly documenting sources of conflicts, competing claims over resources and rights, and problematic policies on the part of development organisations, government and private actors. Difficulties associated with the gathering of information stemmed from systemic power differentials between ‘researchers’ and ‘respondents’, and intensive demands on time and resources. The article concludes that PCIA, if used flexibly and in dialogue with local people, could prove a valuable complement to existing assessment tools in conflict areas.
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